"Trust the overthinker who tells you they love you. They have, most assuredly, thought of every reason not to." -LK Pilgrim
Emily shoves her closet door open and throws her boots on the floor. He stood her up, not that she was surprised. This was the fourth guy that she didn't make it past first date cuts. There were promises of meeting up for dinner, coffee, another movie, drinks, visits to various parks/ the zoo/ or other various attractions in the DC area, but here she was on yet another night at her apartment, alone. She stabbed the home button on her phone and unlocks it as quickly as she can. Pulling up the BAU Bad Bitches group chat as Garcia had graciously dubbed them, Emily couldn't help but simply quote Queen as she types out Another One Bites The Dust. She knew that JJ and Pen, were both rooting for this one to work out as much as she was, especially since they understood how frustrated and unsatisfied her dating life had left her lately. This guy had left her with a hug and the promise of a second date at the end of their previous date. A hug was nice and all, but COME ON UNIVERSE, if all Emily wanted was a hug- well she could ask Morgan or Garcia or even God forbid Hotch if she was that desperate. Emily was desperate to prove to herself that she was wanted though by the opposite sex. The only person who said things remotely sexual to her these days to her were Garcia and the people who catcalled her on the street. Oh and the creepiest unsubs but they so don't count.
Seriously?JJ's reply came fairly fast.
How bad was this date gumdrop? Garcia asks with a monkey covering it's eyes following the text.
Well seeing as he never showed up to even pick me up, I'd say it was pretty bad from the start. Emily feels an angry flush appear on her face. Whatever, fuck it I guess, since he won't be fucking me.
You're worth more than him Em, JJ's motherly words meant a lot to Emily but right now she more wanted to just focus on moving on to the next big thing, and hopefully the next guy.
Want me to ruin his credit score? Pen's offer made Emily laugh. She probably knew ways to make it happen in a way that could never be traced back to her, but Emily didn't want to risk her favorite tech analyst getting in trouble over a guy who took Emily on one date that, now that he had stood her up, wasn't even that good looking back on it.
No need Pen, he's not worth it.
Em, anyone who stand you up is worth fucking with. You're amazing and I second what my favorite blonde mother said, you're worth more than him. Just keep in mind my offer still stands.
Heard Garcie. I will probably just read a book or something anyway. I hear my bath calling for a soak and a glass of wine anyway. Emily sets her phone on her kitchen island as she goes to pick out a bottle of wine from one of the many similar reds she had recently purchased. While going through the different bottles trying to pick out one for tonight, there is a knock on her front door. "Dieu aide moi." Emily mutters her plead to God to help her under her breathe, already planning how she would get away with the murder of her date that decided showing up three hours after the fact was acceptable.
"Si, pendant un instant, vous pensez que se présenter si tard est une bonne idée, je vais vous montrer à quel point ce n'était pas une bonne idée-" Her french comes out fast and angrily as she opened the door, but the face on the other side is equally surprised and shocked by how angry she appears to be to see him at her doorstep.
"Prentiss, is this a bad time?" Hotch asks quickly. "I swear I'm unarmed and I come in peace."
"Hotch, uh no, come on in."
"I mean my high school French is very rusty but I take it someone managed to piss you off?" Hotch jokes with her as he follows her inside.
"Something like that." Emily tries to recall if Hotch had mentioned running by when she had dropped her files off for the night but she's pretty sure she would have remembered. She doesn't usually let her friends/teammates pop on over even for a social visit if she's planning on going out- or well having company over. "I, uh, got stood up and I thought you were my date showing up three hours late."
"Someone stood you up looking like that?" Emily's jaw drops with shock. That was not the response she expected from her, well her boss. "Emily, I might be only your friend and coworker, but I am male. I can appreciate that you look beautiful."
"Thanks Hotch, but it's not that big of a deal. He was a friend of a friend so I'll send them an angry message later about wasting my time. Anyway, I feel like you didn't come over just for a social call. Did I leave something at the office?"
"More like I forgot to give you something back." Emily's curls drape over her shoulder as she tilts her head to one side trying to remember what she had loaned Hotch in the recent past. "Jack borrowed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when he was over here the other night and he finally finished it. I meant to give it back to you at the office, but I forgot when you stopped in. He also told me to tell you that you were right it was amazing and he wants me to buy the entire series for him."
"Here, let me grab the next one for you, there's no need for you to run out searching for the next one tonight." Emily turns and goes to get it from the other room before Hotch can refuse the offer. Aaron Hotchner watches as Emily Prentiss walks out of the room because where else is he going to look when she looks like that. He's always thought Emily was beautiful and stunning to say the least, but to know that someone missed out on the chance to take Emily out looking like that, this has to be the universe telling him to grab his chance or this could very well be his only chance to be with her. So he's not going to let the universe down he decides. He's got his chance and he's going to take it. "Ok, Hotch here's the second book, the Chamber of Secrets. Also let Jack know I own the movies if he wants to come over and watch them. I'd be happy to take him off your hands one night if you'd like a night to be child free and then he and I-"
"Am I not invited to Harry Potter movie nights?" He asks jokingly and Emily looks at him with a look that he can't quite read, but he thinks is surprised.
"You can be, I just thought you had Beth and you might like a night for the two of you to go out as adults without needing to find a sitter."
"She and I broke up." Aaron states casually, showing no emotion in the statement.
"Oh, Hotch I didn't know." Aaron shrugs slightly.
"I wasn't really talking about it. She got fed up with our schedule and it was too similar to the past to bring it up again."
"Then forget I mentioned it. You and Jack are both invited to come watch Harry Potter movies."
"We'll bring the butterbeer and popcorn." Hotch says with a smile before adding. "Now it would be a shame to let you looking stunning in that beautiful dress go to waste so wanna go grab a drink Emily?"
"I'm ok Hotch, I promise. You've got Jack to get home to. I was going to open some wine and a book anyway. You don't need to waste your time with me when you could spend it with your son."
"Jack's already asleep." Hotch mentions casually, before adding, "Spending my time with a beautiful woman is never wasting my time Emily."
"Hotch did you hit your head or something when you left the office tonight?" Emily asks, seeing as this man who has called her stunning and beautiful no less than three times, is acting differently than the normally stoic BAU chief that is her boss.
"No, of course not."
"You're acting very strange Hotch. If you were Morgan I might expect beautiful to be thrown around casually, but he also say pretty lady, mama, baby girl, and so many other as casual terms. You on the other hand, not so much. So is this Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Are you and Morgan having a Freaky Friday moment?" Emily lowers her voice, "Am I being pranked? Did Morgan put you up to this? Because if he did, this isn't funny Hotch." Emily could almost feel the angry tears rising to her eyes. Being stood up by Pierre was one thing, but having Hotch do this to her was another thing. Morgan had been trying to set Emily up with different people to 'help with her feelings of frustrations' but putting Hotch up to this was another.
"What? Emily, no. Why would I?"
"Hotch I get it that Morgan wants me to 'get my sexual frustrations worked out' but putting you up to this is a low blow and also totally embarrassing. If I wanted to have a one night stand, I could find one on Tinder. I don't need Morgan to be my matchmaker and my lack of a sex life is embarrassing enough without you asking me out on a pity date. So please just go." Aaron notices the tears in her eyes and knows he needs to explain the feelings he's kept hidden for a while, or he'd lose his chance forever.
"Emily, I don't know why Morgan feels the need to set you up on dates that you feel would be pity dates, but I assure you I am not a part of whatever schemes he has tried in the past. I can talk with him to leave you alone in regards to your dating life if you'd like. In all honesty, you shouldn't even need these so called 'pity dates' as you called them when there is someone right here who has been dying to go out with you for years. I assure you there is no pity and never will be. There is just a man that wants to take a beautiful woman out on a date, because someone else missed their chance and I don't want to miss mine." Aaron looks into Emily's eyes and hopes the feelings he has been feeling all along will come across to her. "Emily, say the word and I will go and we will be just coworkers and friends still. But I had to say my piece before I lost my nerve and my chance. So can I take you for a drink or a date please? Let me prove this isn't a prank or anything other than my honest to God feelings." Emily can only stare at him as a few moments pass. Her heart tells her to trust the man who has always protected her from unsubs, but her head reminds her that others have said the same things and in the end she's always too much- she's the problem in the end.
"Aaron, I want to believe you-"
"So then can I grab you some shoes?"
"But-"
"Emily-"
"Aaron, listen please. You're not the first person to say those same lies- those same lines. I can't lose your friendship." Aaron walked over to where Emily is as a single tear rolls down her cheek. She didn't even notice it had slipped from the control she was trying to keep until Aaron reaches to brush it away.
"What if you don't have to?"
"I don't date people I work with for that reason Aaron. I will lose your friendship, because in the end, it won't be you, it will be me that causes the relationship to end. No matter who ends it, the reason will be something I do or say or have done. No matter how I feel about you, I can't risk our friendship."
"Emily I had no idea that you felt like this."
"Si tu savais." Emily says softly knowing, that none of them had any idea of the hell that lived in her head on a daily basis.